Method and system for printing user data to form documents

Abstract

A method and apparatus for printing user data to a form document. A scanner scans the form document at low resolution and sends document data to the computer system. User data to be printed on the form document is input into the computer system and displayed as a user data image to be printed onto the form. The scanned document data is used to create a scanned document image. The scanned document image and the user data image are overlaid on the display to indicate to the user how the user data would print onto the hard copy of the scanned document. The scanned document image is aligned with the user data image manually or automatically. The aligned user data image is then printed directly to the scanned document using a printer.

1. A method of printing user data to a form document comprising:
 receiving scanned document data for a form document; 
 creating a scanned document image from the scanned document data; 
 displaying the scanned document image on a display; 
 receiving user data; 
 displaying the user data as part of a user data image, on the display; 
 enabling a user to link the user data to another item of user data, such that the linked user data is configured to be moved simultaneously with the another item of user data, relative to the scanned document image; 
 automatically aligning the user data with the scanned document image using data codes from the scanned document, wherein different data codes specify different types of user data to be located proximate to the different data codes and, wherein automatically aligning the user data includes, 
 identifying the data codes in the scanned document, 
 creating fields for the entry of the user data proximate to the locations of the data codes in response to identifying the data codes in the scanned document, and 
 inserting the user data specified by the data codes into the fields; 
 enabling a user to adjust the alignment of the user data with the scanned document image by linking user data within the user data image into at least one group and aligning the at least one group with the scanned document image; and 
 printing the user data onto the form document. 
 
     
     
       2. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising displaying a combined image showing the user data image superimposed on the scanned data image. 
     
     
       3. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the displaying the user data comprises displaying the user data based on the user data codes. 
     
     
       4. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the receiving scanned document data comprises receiving low resolution data. 
     
     
       5. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the displaying the scanned document image comprises displaying the scanned document image as a background of a combined image, and wherein the step of displaying the user data comprises displaying the user data on top of the background. 
     
     
       6. A method of printing from a computer to a document, the method comprising:
 scanning a document; 
 creating a scanned document image of the document; 
 displaying the scanned document image on a display; 
 receiving user data; 
 creating a user data image from the user data; 
 displaying the user data image on the display; 
 automatically aligning the user data with the scanned document image using data codes from the scanned document, wherein different data codes specify different types of user data to be located proximate to the different data codes and wherein automatically aligning the user data includes, 
 identifying the data codes in the scanned document, 
 creating fields for the entry of the user data proximate to the locations of the data codes in response to identifying the data codes in the scanned document, and 
 inserting the user data specified by the data codes into the fields 
 enabling a user to adjust the alignment of the user data with the scanned document image by linking user data within the user data image into at least one group and aligning the at least one group with the scanned document image, wherein the linked user data in the at least one group is configured to be moved simultaneously, relative to the scanned document image; and 
 printing the aligned user data image onto the document to create a final document. 
 
     
     
       7. The method of  claim 6 , wherein the scanning comprises scanning the document at a low resolution. 
     
     
       8. The method of  claim 6 , wherein the displaying the user data image comprises superimposing the user data image onto the scanned document image. 
     
     
       9. The method of  claim 6 , wherein the displaying the scanned document image comprises displaying the scanned document image as a background of a combined image, and wherein the displaying the user data comprises displaying the user data on top of the background. 
     
     
       10. The method of  claim 6 , wherein the receiving user data comprises receiving user data from a user input device after displaying the scanned document image. 
     
     
       11. The method of  claim 6 , further comprising receiving a signal from a user input device related to a position of user data relative to the scanned document image, and wherein the creating the user data image comprises positioning user data at the position. 
     
     
       12. A computer-readable medium having computer executable instructions for performing a method for printing user data to a form document, the method comprising: receiving scanned document data for a form document;
 creating a scanned document image from the scanned document data; 
 displaying the scanned document image on a display; 
 receiving user data; 
 displaying the user data as part of a user data image, on the display; 
 automatically aligning the user data with the scanned document image using data codes from the scanned document, wherein different data codes specify different types of user data to be located proximate to the different data codes, and wherein automatically aligning the user data includes, 
 identifying the data codes in the scanned document, 
 creating fields for the entry of the user data proximate to the locations of the data codes in response to identifying the data codes in the scanned document, and 
 inserting the user data specified by the data codes into the fields; 
 enabling the user to adjust the alignment of the user data image with the scanned document image by linking user data within the user data image into at least one group and aligning one group with the scanned document image, wherein the linked user data in the at least one group is configured to be moved simultaneously, relative to the scanned document image; and 
 printing the user data image onto the form document. 
 
     
     
       13. The computer-readable medium of  claim 12 , wherein the method further comprises displaying a combined image showing the user data image superimposed on the scanned data image. 
     
     
       14. The computer-readable medium of  claim 12 , wherein the scanned document data is low resolution data.